17 Life-Changing Cooking Hacks

1. Use two plates to safely cut a lot of little tomatoes at once.

Lay the tomatoes you wish to slice in half on a small plate. Place another plate on top and then run a very sharp knife through the gap between the two plates, holding the top plate securely with your other hand. Voila! Tons of tomatoes cut at one time with all 10 fingers accounted for! (via Jane Maynard)

2. Serve ice cream with a knife, not a scoop.

Next time you're serving ice cream at a party throw the scoop away. Just dip the closed ice cream container into a large bowl of hot water from the tap for 15-30 seconds, remove the lid, and invert onto a large platter or wood cutting board, then slice the servings with a hot knife. (via Jane Maynard)

3. Use a hot knife to slice cake perfectly.

Run your knife underneath the hot water from the tap, dry it off with a towel, and then cut your cake. You may need to re-heat the knife a couple times throughout the process but it works like a charm, especially on thick, rich cakes, like this SoNo Chocolate Ganache Cake. (via Jane Maynard)

4. Open jars instantly with a bottle opener.

Gently lift the edge of the jar's lid until you hear the seal pop, and then unscrew like normal. (via This Week for Dinner)

5. Form cookie dough into balls and freeze them so you have ready-to-bake, homemade cookies available at all times.

Next time you make a batch of cookies, freeze the leftover dough into ready-to-bake cookie balls. You will always have fresh-baked cookies just 10 minutes away, which is both incredibly wonderful and insanely dangerous. (via This Week for Dinner)

6. Make mini taco bowls using an upside-down cupcake tin.

If you have a muffin tin and tortillas, mini taco bowls are just a few steps away! Just flip the muffin tin over, shape your bowls with a tortilla, and bake! (via Emily Bites)

7. Keep brown sugar from getting hard by throwing a piece of bread into the container.

Want to know how to keep your brown sugar soft as the day you opened the package? Throw a piece of bread into the container. Yep, that's it. The bread magically keeps the sugar soft, and never gets moldy or gross. (via This Week for Dinner)

Why food companies insist on selling chicken, beef, and veggie broth in 32-ounce containers may forever be a mystery. Instead of letting the rest of the broth go to waste, just pour leftover broth into an ice cube tray, freeze, and then store in an airtight container. Two cubes is about ¼ cup and the broth will always be ready when you are. (via Fannetastic Food)

9. Instead of wasting cabinet space with a funnel, just use an envelope.

Simply snip a hole in one of the sealed corners of an envelope and you can funnel to your heart's content. (via Simple Bites)

10. Freeze leftover wine to use for cooking later.

If you ever find yourself with leftover wine (Does that happen?), just measure out the leftovers into Ziploc bags and toss in the freezer for later; perfect for when you need wine in a recipe! (via This Week for Dinner)

11. Keep guacamole from turning brown by pouring water on top of it.

There is nothing quite so delicious as brown guacamole. To keep it green, you have to to block the surface of the avocado from touching oxygen, and there is just one great way to do that — with water! Carefully pour enough water on top of the guac to cover it, and cover the container. When you're ready to eat it, just carefully pour off the water. (via This Week for Dinner)

12. Dice a mango quickly by keeping it on the skin instead of peeling it first.

Slice off the sides of the fruit, cut the flesh of the mango into a grid right in the skin, then flip it inside out and slice everything off the skin. (via The View from Great Island)

13. Make gluten-free breadcrumbs using cereal and a food processor.

Get out your food processor, and process brown rice cereal for basic unflavored "bread" crumbs and Rice Chex for panko "bread" crumbs! If you need seasoned crumbs and don't want to add your own seasoning, just use flavored gluten-free pretzels. (via Beard and Bonnet)

Hot chocolate made with real chocolate shavings is the best kind around. But who has time to shave all that chocolate? Heat a mug of milk in the microwave for two minutes, pop in three or four truffles, and stir. You're done! (via This Week for Dinner)

15. Bring eggs to room temperature in five minutes with a bowl of warm water.

There is nothing more frustrating than getting halfway through a recipe and realizing your eggs are supposed to be room temperature. If you forget to take the eggs out an hour before you start cooking (Because, really, who ever remembers to do that?), just put the eggs in a bowl of hot water for 5-10 minutes and you'll be good to go! (via Eat the Love)

16. Make homemade mayonnaise in 30 seconds using oil and eggs.

Throw an egg and a cup of oil into a glass jar or sturdy glass. Turn on an immersion blender and blend from bottom to top until you have mayo. (via The View from Great Island)

17. Cut corn off the cob quickly and neatly by holding it steady with a bundt pan.

Get out a sharp knife and a large bundt cake pan, and get cutting. The center of the pan will help you hold the cob securely in place and the pan will catch all the corn while you cut. (via Simple Bites)

Jane Maynard is a food blogger at This Week for Dinner and Babble, a writer and designer, and a lover of all things chocolate.

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